The study, which was funded by a sub-group of the National Institutes of Health (http://NIEHS.NIH.gov), found that exposure to a common fungicide caused neurological and behavioral changes that were passed on to future generations of offspring, even when those offspring had no exposure to the original fungicide

Groundbreaking new science reveals that the harmful effects of exposure to synthetic chemicals are passed from generation to generation via “epigenetics,” causing measurable damage to future generationseven if those offspring are never exposed to the original chemical. The phenomenon of “Epigenetic Transgenerational Inheritance” (ETI) has now been demonstrated in live animals, and if the implications of this research are fully understood, it would force human civilization to radically rethink its widespread use of synthetic chemicals in agriculture, medicine, food, construction materials, and personal care products.

Edited by Fred H. Gage, The Salk Institute, San Diego, CA, and approved April 18, 2012 (received for review November 15, 2011) The research, led by Dr. David Crews (and including colleagues Michael Skinner, Ross Gillette and others), is entitled,“Epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of altered stress responses”and is published in the journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America) (http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/05/15/1118514109.abstract).

The study, which was funded by a sub-group of the National Institutes of Health (http://NIEHS.NIH.gov), found that exposure to a common fungicide caused neurological and behavioral changes that were passed on to future generations of offspring, even when those offspring had no exposure to the original fungicide. Furthermore, the mechanism of “transgenerational inheritance” was epigenetic, meaning it was “above the genes.” It was not coded into the DNA of sperm and egg, in other words. Instead, theexpression of the DNAwas altered and inherited through some mechanism other than DNA.

As the abstract of the study sums it up:
“We find that a single exposure to a common-use fungicide (vinclozolin) three generations removed alters the physiology, behavior, metabolic activity, and transcriptome in discrete brain nuclei in descendant males, causing them to respond differently to chronic restraint stress.” (http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/05/15/1118514109.abstract)
This groundbreaking research offers a sobering revelation about the age of industrial chemicals through which we are all now living. This “age of chemicals” ramped up roughly around World War II (late 1930’s).

The conventional view of chemicals — the view advocated by the chemical industry, the cancer industry, the FDA, the EPA, etc. — is that the damaging effects of chemical exposure are NOT passed on to future generations (unless, of course, exposure happens during pregnancy). Chemicals are relatively safe, the regulators say, because the next generation is always born healthy and genetically intact.
But what this research by Dr. David Crews reveals is that chemical exposure accumulates and is inherited by offspring which then pass on the damaging effects of that exposure to their own offspring. This transgenerational “epigenetic” effect appears to go on indefinitely, forever altering theexpressionof the genetic code.

Dr. Crews explained that the inherited, cumulative effects of chemical exposure may be a key element behind the causes of today’s most worrisome disease epidemics: Autism, obesity, infertility and perhaps even cancer.

If this trend continues, we may be looking at a near future where every other child is autistic, and at that point questions about the long-term viability of the entire human race start to become unavoidable. Dr. Crews explains that although we cannot rid our world of toxic chemical pollution, we must at least be honest and accurate about the near-term and long-term damage caused by those chemicals so that we can take immediate steps to limit exposure.

“We have permanently contaminated our world, and we are never going to be able to clean up our world. We have to recognize this fact. We have poisoned the environment. There is no turning back, but that doesn’t mean we have to continue poisoning the environment,” he says.

Dr. Crews believes that part of the answer rests in the realm of “green chemistry” where toxic synthetic chemicals used in agriculture are replaced with far less harmful chemicals that don’t trigger transgenerational (inherited) damage in humans or animals.

Urgent call to avoid all chemicals NOW. Anyone who fully grasps the implications of this research mustimmediatelytake urgent steps to radically and permanently reduce their exposure to synthetic chemicals.”This recent ruling by the FDA not to ban BPA in the United States is, in my opinion, a disaster,” says Dr Crews. “It is a fundamental mistake by a regulatory agency.”

The research of Dr. Crews and colleagues gives us a stern warning that stands in great contrast to the persistent denials of the chemistry industry. Chemical exposure damages your offspring, and it then goes on to damage their offspring, generation after generation, through an unknown number of generations.